This is a Volkswagen. Perhaps, if you’re of a certain age and mind-set, the definitive Volkswagen. But it’s not a car.

The California is a camper van, and here’s the latest T6 model. We’ve got the higher-spec Ocean model (the other one’s called the Beach, so both will appear to your inner surf bum), powered by a 201bhp version of the 2.0 TDI engine.

It’s a bit small to be called a fully fledged motorhome, but with a fridge, cooker, shower and kitchen sink the California is as much home as it is motor. The rear seats fold to create a comfortable double bed and there’s a third up above in a roof which lifts electrically, though you need to be agile to get at it.

What you don’t need to be is cynical about a van-based lifestyle wagon. Previous Californias did have a touch of the utility vehicle about them, but this latest model represents a quantum leap in terms of quality. Trim materials are excellent and the multimedia system makes sense, even if the touch screen is a long way from your seat.

So it’s car-like in that way, though in terms of driving there’s still a lot of the van to it. The engine has plenty of heave from next to no revs, and it shuts up as you get moving – though in its place the big mirrors don’t exactly cut silently through the air.

Naturally, the California’s dynamics aren’t its strongest suit, with plenty of body roll and an over-light steering set-up that feels a bit jumpy in your hands. It holds the road very keenly, though, and bowls along quite briskly with this range-topping engine beneath its bonnet.

It’s comfortable, too, which is just as well as what you’re driving is in effect your lounge. And let’s face it, you don’t buy one of these for dynamic thrills, at least not unless its job is to carry your board to the surf. So instead you drive it like Cheech and Chong and it goes with the flow, man, peace-ing out over crests and not getting all uncool and heavy.

Which is just like the way surfers talk, obviously. And everyone who buys a California is a surfer… ah, don’t you just love a good cliche?

Volkswagen obviously does, because everything about the California’s name speaks of lazy days on Huntington and spinning the Beach Boys on 45. Like coastal LA, needless to say there’s the inconvenient reality of a high price tag (options included, you’re looking at a £55,000-plus van here), but you certainly do get what you pay for.

And what you pay for is a level of practicality that’s off the scale. It might compare unfavourably with a mere car in dynamic terms, but whereas your everyday estate might give you a handy compartment for your shopping, here you have a fridge. And a cooker. And a table to eat it at. And a bed to sleep in afterwards.

Get the idea?

And you get something else, too – which is the best camper Volkswagen has yet made. After the thick end of half a century, that’s worth fifty grand of anybody’s money.